ABSTRACT
In November 2006, South Africa’s youngest lottery millionaire was arrested and charged with murder. The state claimed that Thamsanqa Maramba 1 had turned to the drug trade to supplement his dwindling fortune. When one of his runners stole 8,000 rand from him, he allegedly paid four hitmen to murder the man as an example to others. Thamsanqa’s advocate protested his innocence, noting that he had never been in trouble with the law and that contrary to the state’s allegations, a large portion of his R6.7 million jackpot was safely invested (Van der Fort 2006: 5). The trial was postponed numerous times (Joseph 2007: 12) before a High Court judge finally presided over it in March 2009 (Breytenbach 2009a: 3).
